Twitter is a social networking and microblogging site where users post 'tweets' that are 140 characters long and can include images or videos. There are a range of safety features available on the service.

Safety tools

Block: Use the block function to stop a user from following you, tagging you in photos or accessing your tweets. Any @replies or mentions from a Blocked user will not appear in your mentions tab (although these Tweets may still appear in search)

Reporting: Click on the in-Tweet reporting button or fill out the online forms on Twitter’s support pages (support.twitter.com/forms) to send a message to Twitter’s user support and safety team.

Mute: Hide a user’s tweets from your timeline without blocking them. A red mute icon will appear on their profille, visible only to the user, until they are unmuted.

Protect your tweets: When you sign up for Twitter, you have the option to keep your Tweets public (the default account setting) or to protect your Tweets. To protect your Tweets go to your Security and Privacy Settings.

Photo tagging: in your privacy settings you can control who can tag you in photos.

Sensitive content: Twitter ask users to mark their Tweets as sensitive if they contain media that might be considered sensitive content such as nudity, violence, or medical procedures. For the viewer, the default setting is that if a Tweet is marked as containing media that might be sensitive, they will be required to click through a warning message before that media is displayed to them.

It can help to learn more about location functions and think carefully before sharing location information. You can delete all location data history in your 'security and privacy settings'.

Terms and conditions

The Twitter Rules provide users with clear guidelines about permitted use of the service.

Targeted harassment and abuse is not allowed on Twitter. The consequences for engaging in such behaviour include warnings as well as temporary or permanent account suspensions.

Posting specific and direct violent threats are strictly prohibited on Twitter, with warnings and account suspensions enforced. Twitter also encourage users to report such behaviour to law enforcement so that the threat can be properly evaluated and, if applicable, the behaviour prosecuted.

Age requirement

13 years +

To be eligible to sign up for Twitter, you must be at least 13 years old.